Trump “delays” Gaza wedding

Palestinians protest US cuts to UNRWA, Gaza City, 29 January.

 Ashraf AmraAPA images

Sarah Algherbawi-6 March 2018

Decisions taken in Washington are causing a dilemma for Ghassan Abu el-Qomsan and his family.

His twin sons Wasim and Ibrahim are planning to get married in a joint ceremony this May. It is uncertain whether the wedding will go ahead. Ghassan fears he will not be able to pay for the celebrations.

Ghassan teaches in a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees. He fears that his pay may soon be cut because the agency has been plunged into a financial crisis.

The crisis was exacerbated by Donald Trump’s administration in the US, which has withheld more than half of a $125 million payment it was scheduled to give UNRWA during January.

“I don’t know what to do,” Ghassan, a 48-year-old resident of the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, said. “Should I postpone the wedding of my sons? If my salary is reduced, I’ll not be able to pay the full bill for the wedding.”

Ghassan’s son Wasim said he has been “living in a state of stress” since the Trump administration announced it was withholding aid to UNRWA. “I’ve been engaged for a year now,” Wasim, 24, said. “I’m afraid that I will not be able to get married this year.”

Abbas Abu Nada, 27, undertakes computer maintenance work for UNRWA.

As his father was killed in a car crash in 2015, Abu Nada is now the breadwinner for 11 family members.

His contract with the agency is temporary, but until recently he had hopes of being made a long-term employee. The US aid cuts have destroyed such hopes.

“I have started searching for new jobs,” he said. “My family needs me.”

More than a third of UNRWA’s 30,000 employees work in Gaza.

Painful measures

The aid cuts have already forced UNRWA to take painful measures. Matthias Schmale, who heads the agency in Gaza, stated that it has found enough money to ensure that staff are paid until June. Yet the agency is unable to give new teachers long-term jobs and to renew the contracts of staff employed on a temporary basis.

Schmale warned that the consequences of the financial crisis could be far-reaching. “UNRWA is a factor of stability in the region,” he said. “If we decrease our services, this may lead to an explosion.”

In total, UNRWA runs 267 schools and 21 primary health facilities in Gaza. It also provides food aid to around 1 million people in Gaza, half of the strip’s population.

Responding to its financial crisis, UNRWA began a fundraising campaign in January. The agency wishes to collect $500 million, it announced when the campaign was launched in Gaza.

Many people in Gaza think that the US is unlikely to release the aid it is freezing.

“We expect more decreases in American support in the coming years, especially because the current presidency is taking clear steps for the advantage of Israel,” said Esam Odwan, who heads the refugee department for Hamas.

The aid reductions are taking place at a time when the situation of people in Gaza is generally precarious.

More than 40,000 public sector employees in Gaza have seen their pay fall sharply over the past few years because of cuts imposed by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the occupied West Bank.

A commitment was made to ensure that 50 percent of those employees’ salaries would be paid under the reconciliation deal clinched between Hamas and its rival Fatah in Cairo during October 2017.

“I feel helpless”

Yet the employees complain that they are still not being paid. A union representing the employees has set up a tent in Gaza City to demand that the situation be rectified.

Nashat al-Sinwar, 47, goes to the protest tent each day.

Nashat had been supporting nine family members through his work as a police officer with the Hamas-led administration in Gaza. His 12-year-old son Ameer has osteoporosis.

“I’m not able to afford medication for my son,” said Nashat, whose debts are rising. “I’m afraid of losing him. I feel helpless.”

Yousef Hijazi, 39, is part of the traffic police. He continues to work eight hours per day, without being paid.

“At the end of the day, I don’t have money to buy food for my family,” the father of four said. “Many days, we only have bread and water.”

“I never expected to live in such way,” Hijazi added. “I can handle this situation, but my children are too small to understand why their father can’t meet their needs and wants.”

He has not been able to repay debts to a local supermarket. Because he is not receiving a salary, the store has stopped allowing him to have goods on credit.

There is a widespread suspicion that the people of Gaza are deliberately being made to suffer.

Mustafa al-Sawaf, a political analyst with the newspaper Felesteen, argues that Israel and its allies wish to make Hamas give up its resistance activities. By refusing to pay salaries, the Palestinian Authority has been helping Israel realize that objective.

“Starving people will not be able to revolt,” he said. “Israel and the US want to starve us.”

Sarah Algherbawi is a freelance writer and translator from Gaza.

ANALYSIS: Iran is the target as Netanyahu heaps praise on Trump

Israel's prime minister compares the US president to Cyrus the Great and talks up potential alliance with Arab states

Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people throughout the ages,' Netanyahu told Trump of the Jerusalem move (Reuters)

Ali Harb-Tuesday 6 March 2018 

It is not uncommon for Republican officials and lawmakers to take turns singing the praises of Donald Trump, often while the US president is sitting in the same room. The best way to influence Trump is to applaud his work and character, a former US senator told CNN last year.

And it seems that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was listening.

The embattled Israeli leader showered Trump with compliments ahead of a bilateral meeting in Washington on Monday, comparing the US president to Cyrus the Great, a Persian king who is said to have freed Jews exiled in Babylonia and allowed them to return to Jerusalem some 2500 years ago.

The best way - for thousands of years - for leaders to change any conversation is through violence and war.

- Mark Andrew Le Vine, professor

Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital late last year, and a new US embassy is set to open in the holy city in May.

"Mr President, this will be remembered by our people throughout the ages," Netanyahu said of the embassy move. "And as you just said, others talked about it. You did it. So I want to thank you on behalf of the people of Israel."

He then went on to say that the biggest threat to the Middle East can be "encapsulated in one word: Iran."

The National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based advocacy group, denounced Netanyahu for likening Trump to Cyrus the Great.

"Comparing Donald Trump - the man who has banned Iranians from the United States - to Cyrus the Great is as laughable as it is insulting," the group said in a statement.

"Even worse - Netanyahu and Trump are working together to try to kill the Iran nuclear deal and set the stage for war with Iran. And later this month, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman will be in Washington for the exact same purpose."

'Ludicrous'

King Cyrus is a central figure in both Persian and Jewish history.

Mark Andrew Le Vine, a Middle East history professor at the University of California Irvine, called the comparison "ludicrous," saying that "it really doesn't make any historical sense."

But it may be about giving Israel sovereignty over Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, the professor added.

"Beyond that, it's just stroking Trump's enormous ego about being someone of world historical importance," Le Vine told Middle East Eye.

The Arabs have never been closer to Israel.

- Benjamin Netanyahu

Trump decertified the Iran nuclear deal last year, but fell short of pulling the US out of the pact, leaving it up to Congress to re-impose sanctions on Tehran.

Netanyahu's expression of gratitude for Trump on Monday preceded a verbal attack on Tehran, where the Israeli leader criticised the Iran nuclear deal and touted a possible alliance between Israel and its "Arab neighbours".

"The Arabs have never been closer to Israel," Netanyahu said, adding that the greatest challenge for both Israel and its potential Arab partners is Iran.

James Zogby says the US would be isolated if it walks away from the Iran deal without agreement with its European allies (Reuters)

The US president has been critical of the agreement, calling it the "worst deal ever."

The treaty between Iran, the US, France, UK, Germany, Russia and China drastically scales back the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme in exchange for lifting economic sanctions on Tehran.

Netanyahu has not been a fan of the accord, either. In 2015, he delivered a speech in Congress to make a case against then-president Barack Obama's policies towards Iran.

"Iran has not given up its nuclear ambitions. It came out of this nuclear deal emboldened, enriched," Netanyahu said at a joint news conference with Trump on Monday.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, voiced concern over the US position in the world if Trump, whom he said is capable of "many dangerous pronouncements", pulls Washington out of the Iran deal without consulting with other signatories to the agreement.

"If the US wants to further isolate itself from its European allies and from Russia and China, then it will pursue a unilateral policy," Zogby told MEE. "The danger is not just what it represents for Iran and Israel. It's a danger for the US and the world. It isolates us if we walk away from this without the support of our European allies."

He called Netanyahu's praise for Trump "dangerous".

While Trump's top aides have warned against nixing the agreement, Le Vine noted the unpredictability of the US president to highlight that the deal is not safe.

Trump is facing increasing domestic pressure from the investigation of possible collusion between his campaign and Russia. His Israeli counterpart is also enduring a political crisis at home, including several corruption probes.

"They are clearly desperate to change the conversation," Le Vine said of Trump and Netanyahu. "The best way - for thousands of years - for leaders to change any conversation is through violence and war. You have two men who both have a vested interest in creating a situation that is so grave that people cannot talk about the problems they're experiencing."

An Arab-Israel alliance?

As for Arab-Israeli rapprochement, Le Vine said it is old news.

He said Riyadh does not see Israel as a threat and is mainly concerned with Iran, adding that the 2003 US invasion of Iraq which toppled Saddam Hussein left no Arab leaders outside the US orbit.

"Peace between the Arab countries and Israel is in the past tense; it happened a long time ago… What you're talking about now is solidifying military, strategic and economic relations at the highest possible level," Le Vine said.

As much as the Gulf states hate Iran, it does not translate into love of Israel.

- James Zogby, AAI

But Zogby had a different outlook. He cited a 2017 AAI poll, which showed that only 2 percent of Saudis and 1 percent of Emirates favour an anti-Iran alliance with Israel if Palestinian rights are not addressed.

"As much as the Gulf states hate Iran, it does not translate into love of Israel," he said. "This is barking up the wrong tree and will not go anywhere. No Arab state will make peace or deal overtly with Israel as long as the Palestinian issue is not solved."

He said Arab countries know that partnering with Israel against Tehran is "dangerous" because they are aware of where their public stands on the issue.  

"There maybe backdoor channels. But backdoor channels do not translate into an open, public alliance. Nothing overt will happen until peace is made," Zogby told MEE.

Trump has proved to be a decisive figure in US politics. And scepticism of Israel is growing in Democratic circles. 

Would the picture of Netanyahu showering Trump with praise hurt Israel's image in US liberal circles?

Le Vine said folks who like Netanyahu in the global political landscape are likely Trump fans as well.

"They're like the peanut butter and jelly of right-wing politics," the professor said. 

Who’s fighting whom in Syria?

By Patrick Worrall-6 Mar 2018

The question’s simple – the answer is only getting more complicated. Here’s a video explainer of what you need to know.

Russia suspected of using 'dumb' bombs to shift blame for Syria war crimes

UN sources say Moscow’s use of weapons similar to those used by Syrian regime could be attempt to mask involvement in airstrikes

Smoke rises after an airstrike south-east of Aleppo in August 2016. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul Tue 6 Mar 2018 14.17 GMT

The Russian air force has used unguided “dumb” bombs in Syria, in what UN sources say could be an effort to shift responsibility for possible war crimes and civilian deaths to their ally, the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

UN sources told the Guardian that Moscow’s use of less accurate bombs, which are closer in their capability to the Syrian air force’s weapons stockpiles, could be intended to make it more difficult for war crimes investigators to identify those responsible for civilian deaths from airstrikes in Syria.

“There seems to be a concerted effort for very similar weaponry to be used [by the Syrian and Russian air forces],” said one UN official. “Since the Syrian air force is using older planes with pilots untrained in smart weapons capabilities, they [Russia] would use less smart weapons capabilities. I suspect they want to use those weapons because it makes attribution more difficult.”

The allegations raise further doubts about Russia’s claims that its aerial campaign in Syria, which was launched in late 2015 in an effort to shore up Assad’s position, and which has reversed his fortunes in the seven-year war, primarily targeted militants and “terrorists”.

It also raises questions about the civilian cost of Russia’s airstrikes, which played a key role in the regime’s victory, late in 2016 in Aleppo after a punishing siege and aerial bombardment, and about the offensive in the enclave of eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, which has killed more than 700 people in two weeks.

Moscow has been accused by weapons experts of using inaccurate munitions in the past in its campaign but those accusations were focused on the motivation that such weapons were likely to be cheaper than precision-guided missiles. The claim that these tactics might be meant to elude war crimes investigators has not been made before.

The assessment is not shared by all UN officials working on Syria. Other UN officials say the use of inaccurate bombs could be a tactic aimed at scaring civilians, who would in turn might pressure rebel groups to surrender.

“My personal sense regarding the use of such weapons in Syria has been that they’re used to create panic, terrorise the civilian population, with the ultimate aim of making it turn against armed groups operating within these communities,” said one official.

The allegations came on the same day as the release of a report by the UN’s International Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which identified an attack in a town near Aleppo which used unguided munitions to devastating effect.

The commission had accused both Russia and the Syrian government of using unguided weapons in the past, particularly during the siege of Aleppo, which it said had relied almost exclusively on such munitions.

The attack on Atarib on the afternoon of 13 November 2017 took place at a crowded market, with a series of airstrikes that damaged or destroyed an area of approximately 5,000 sq metres, and killed at least 84 people. At the time, Moscow denied launching airstrikes in the area, but radio intercepts identified Russian-speaking pilots who took off half an hour earlier from Hemeimeem airbase, the main stronghold for Russian forces in western Syria.

The commission’s investigation into the attack, detailed in an annex in the report, said that two types of weapons were used – blast weapons and earth penetrators. Based on video and images from the site, including of an unexploded bomb, investigators said the weapons used were the unguided OFAB-500 fragmentation bomb, which is manufactured by Russia, and the BeTAB-500 unguided bunker buster bomb, which the Russian air force has used multiple times in Aleppo.

“The impact points show that unguided bombs roughly fell in a line with a 250m dispersion, which suggests that the aircraft lined up on the target dropping weapons into an area that formed a target box rather than conducting a precision strike against the point target,” the report said.

The commission’s report did not speculate on the reasons why Russia used less precise weapons, and said the target of the strike could have been a meeting involving al-Qaida-linked militants. But the Russian denial of the airstrikes, coupled with the use of Russian-made unguided bombs, lends credence to the allegations that Moscow sought to obfuscate its involvement in airstrikes near a crowded market that would probably cause heavy civilian casualties.

“There is no evidence to indicate that this attack deliberately targeted civilians or the Atarib market,” the report concluded. “Through the use of unguided bombs, including blast weapons in a densely civilian populated area, however, this attack may amount to the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in death and injury to civilians.”

The commission’s report, which covered the period from July last year to mid-January, also said it would help victims of crimes in the Syrian war pursue justice through national and international jurisdictions in the future. The possibility of prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria by the international criminal court has so far been stymied by the threat of a Russian veto.

The ICC can only investigate cases if they are referred to it by the UN security council or by a country voluntarily joining the organisation.

The commission also documented a chemical attack against rebel fighters in eastern Ghouta in November 2017, and condemned both the ongoing siege and the retaliatory shelling of Damascus by rebel groups.

Russian transport plane crashes in Syria killing 39 aboard

Plane went down at Russia's Khmeimim airbase in Latakia province, killing 33 passengers and six crew.

The An-26 is a twin-engine tactical transport aircraft [Courtesy: Vitaliy Nevar/TASS]

6 Mar 2018

A Russian transport plane crashed in Syria killing all 39 people on board with the defence ministry saying the aircraft reportedly wasn't shot down.

The Antonov-26 aircraft crashed at Russia's Khmeimim airbase in Latakia province on Tuesday, Russian media quoted the ministry as saying.

Initial information suggested the crash may have been caused by a technical fault. The aircraft hit the ground about 500 metres short of the runway, the ministry said.

Thirty-three passengers and six crew members were on the aircraft when it went down at about 3pm Moscow time (12:00GMT). All of the people aboard were Russian military personnel.

The Khmeimim airbase is the main site for Russia's military campaign in Syria. The plane reportedly did not come under fire. 

"Nobody survived," the ministry's statement said. "According to reports from the scene, no fire was delivered against the plane."

Russian plane crash probe progressing

Russia's Investigative Committee said on Tuesday it opened a criminal case into the crash. Investigators will look into suggestions that flight safety rules had been flouted.

It was the second Russian military plane to crash in Syria this year, after a Su-25 ground attack jet was struck by a portable air defence missile over northern Idlib province last month. The pilot ejected and died down on the ground. 

Russia's air force has played a crucial role in the seven-year war after it began operations in September 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Russia's air power turned the tide in the war in Assad's favour.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered "a significant part" of Moscow's military contingent at Khmeimim to start withdrawing in December, declaring their work largely done. But casualties continue to mount.

Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying the incident sharply raises the death toll from the Kremlin's Syria operation.

Opinion polls indicate most Russians support the Syria intervention. But Dmitry Gudkov, a former member of parliament and a member of the anti-Putin opposition, said the Kremlin had questions to answer about the campaign.

“How does the drawdown of forces look now? For the sake of what are these people dying? When will this senseless war end?” Gudkov said in a social media post.

Russian plane crash in Latakia [Al Jazeera]

Who is Sam Nunberg? The world wants to know.

Sam Nunberg said on March 5 that he is refusing to appear before a grand jury investigating Russian election interference. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

By Kyle Swenson March 6 at 5:57 AM

Sam Nunberg — babyfaced, dark hair mowed short, suit jacket buttoned — addressed the audience through a microphone. Technically, the issue was historical landmark status. But the fate of the former Burlington Coat Factory in Manhattan had become an overheated proxy battle in the wider culture war.

It was July 13, 2010, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission was holding a hearing on the fate of 45 Park Place, the proposed location of an Islamic mosque and community center, two blocks from Ground Zero. The plans had become hotly contested, with opponents arguing that the placement of the religious building was disrespectful. Emotions at the meeting were high. 

Boos and catcalls flew.

Then Nunberg, a representative with the American Center for Law and Justice, one of the groups opposing the mosque’s construction, began reading from the yellow notebook pages in his hands. The words quickly dumped rhetorical gasoline on the tensions.

“It would be a travesty to let this building be removed,” he said according to video from the meeting, his voice rising as applause and shouts of approval exploded from the audience. “It would be like removing the sunken ships from Pearl Harbor to erect a memorial to the Japanese kamikazes killed in the attack!”

At the time, Nunberg was a political operative and lawyer. On Monday, his words again riled people up. This time, however, it was not just a room but the entire political and media establishment.

Beginning with an interview with The Washington Post, the 36-year-old former Trump campaign staff member launched a defiant and erratic media blitz, telling The Post’s Josh Dawsey that he would refuse a subpoena to appear before special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s grand jury investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. “Let him arrest me,” Nunberg said.

What followed were consecutive media appearances that inspired hashtags (#NunbergMeltdown), late-night television jokes, questions about his state of mind and a startling on-air inquiry from CNN’s Erin Burnett: “Talking to you, I have smelled alcohol on your breath,” the anchor said. “You haven’t had a drink today? Anything else?” Nunberg said he had not, only his antidepressants.

By the end of the day, his defiance had cooled. Nunberg told the Associated Press that he probably would testify.

The bewildering spectacle catapulted a former Trump staff member — a figure previously familiar at best to some Beltway insiders — to the middle of the media conversation.

In a news cycle that usually spins around every move and tweet by President Trump, Nunberg stole the spotlight.

“I’m not having a meltdown,” he told Yahoo News late Monday night. “In fact, I’m the first person ever standing up for themselves.”

According to his LinkedIn page, Nunberg graduated from Canada’s McGill University with a bachelor’s degree in history in 2004; he earned his law degree from Long Island’s Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in 2009. Reporting for BuzzFeed in 2014, McKay Coppins wrote that Nunberg’s “first foray into presidential campaigning came in 2007 when he worked as a volunteer for the [Mitt] Romney campaign while attending law school.”

According to Coppins, Nunberg “was put in charge of organizing turnout for the New York City GOP straw poll. With a little bit of hustle and political voodoo, he helped pull off an upset win for Romney over hometown hero Rudy Giuliani.”

Nunberg then went to work with the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian conservative legal organization founded by televangelist Pat Robertson and spearheaded by future Trump attorney Jay Sekulow. With that group, Nunberg was front and center during the battle over the Ground Zero mosque as the group’s director of government affairs. In December 2011, he joined the Middle East Forum as director of legal projects, according to a release from the organization.

Nunberg was an early member of Trump’s political team when the developer’s potential candidacy was seen mostly as a stunt. In 2014, as Trump continued a long-running flirtation with higher office, Nunberg was at his side. BuzzFeed reported that Nunberg was working for operative Roger Stone at the time.

“He comes on a bit strong, as you know,” Stone explained to Yahoo News when describing Nunberg in 2016. “I mean, within a week of my meeting him he was going around telling people I was his mentor. He’s got chutzpah, as they say.”

(Stone did not return an email for comment on Nunberg’s comments on Monday.)

The BuzzFeed piece about Trump was unflattering. According to CNN, the article, which Nunberg had talked Trump into doing, got Nunberg ousted from the developer’s team. Nunberg, however, was back by February 2015, when he joined Trump’s nascent communications operation.

Not long into Trump’s campaign, Nunberg was reportedly tasked with bringing the candidate up to speed on the finer points of the U.S. Constitution. As Nunberg told “Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff: “I got as far as the Fourth Amendment before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head.” According to Wolff’s book, Trump also once left Nunberg behind at a McDonald’s when the aide’s special order burger took too long to make.

That tenure also proved short-lived: In July 2015, Business Insider published an article documenting Nunberg’s past social media posts containing racially charged language, including referring to President Barack Obama as a “Socialist Marxist Islamo Fascist Nazi Appeaser” and referring to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s daughter as the n-word. He was let go from the campaign.

Nunberg later wrote an apology letter to Sharpton.

The former aide continued to make cameo appearances in the news cycle related to his former boss. In March 2016, Nunberg endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) in the Republican presidential primary.

“When did I decide that I could no longer support Trump?” Nunberg said to Politico. “Last fall, when he did not have any idea of what the nuclear triad is in a debate. I was concerned, but I figured that he would bulk up on policy. He has not. I do not see a candidate who takes these issues seriously.”

Later that year, then-Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks criticized the former aide: “Sam Nunberg was fired,” she told Politico. “He’s a highly self-destructive individual who makes routine calls begging for his job back. This is the interview of a desperate person who is trying to hang on and stay relevant.”

Nunberg’s relationship with the campaign hit a low in July 2016, when Trump sued him for $10 million, claiming he broke a confidentiality agreement. One month later, the two sides “amicably” settled. And despite his litigious ouster from Trump’s orbit, Nunberg continued to speak often and admiringly of the president.

“One thing about Donald Trump, I don’t know if I’m ever going to have another boss like this,” he told The Post’s Philip Rucker in April 2017. “He’s able to make you excel and push yourself. Part of it is because you want to please him.”

Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert dedicated over 10 minutes of his show on March 5 to talk about former Trump aide Sam Nunberg. Here are the highlights. (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

These are the ten best countries in the world, only one is in Asia

6th March 2018

Asia only gets one country in the world's top ten. Source: Janaka Dharmasena/Shutterstock

JAPAN has been named the best country in Asia and fifth best in the world, according to a new ranking from global research firm US News & World Report.

The home of sushi and samurai left all other Asian nations in the dust with the closest contender, Singapore, coming in 16th best in the world.

Electronics district in Tokyo, Japan. Source: ESB Professionals/Shutterstock

The 2018 Best Countries report and rankings are based on how global perceptions define countries in terms of a number of qualitative characteristics, impressions that have the potential to drive trade, travel and investment and directly affect national economies. The report covers perceptions of 80 nations.

SEE ALSO: Malaysia named Asia’s best country to retire

The study and model used to score and rank countries were developed by global strategic consultancy, Y&R’s BAV Group, and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Both organisations worked with the American based researcher to develop the scoring system across nine key categories; adventure, citizenship, cultural influence, entrepreneurship, heritage, movers, open for business, power, and quality of life.

Europe and North America dominated the top 10 best countries in the world, with Switzerland coming in the top spot. But both Japan and Australia made it into the top 10, representing Asia-Pacific.

Uji, Kyoto, Japan – famous Byodo-in Buddhist temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Phoenix Hall building. Source: Bule Sky Studio/Shutterstock

Japan scored particularly high in entrepreneurship, business, power and cultural influence. But dropped points on adventure.

Australia, ranked seventh in the world, won big on quality of life, beating out Switzerland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

Here’s the full list of Top 10 Best Countries in the World:

1. Switzerland
2. Canada
3. Germany
4. United Kingdom
5. Japan
6. Sweden
7. Australia
8. United States
9. France
10. Netherlands

SEE ALSO: Hong Kong is the safest country to travel in the world

Himeji Castle and full cherry blossom, with Fuji mountain background, Japan. Source: Thanaprus.N/Shutterstock

Tailing off beyond the top 10 are China (20th best in the world), South Korea (22), India (25), Thailand (27), Malaysia (34), Indonesia (41), Vietnam (44), Philippines (49), Burma (63), and coming in last in Asia-Pacific, Pakistan at 74th in the world.

Special mention goes to the Philippines who topped the list as the best country to invest in, noting that its young population will attract more firms looking for a good labour force.

And Thailand, who made the top 5 most adventurous.

A Macedonia By Any Other Name

The Balkans desperately need help, but Greece won’t stop picking a fight over what to call its northern neighbor.

People wave Macedonian flags during a protest in a central square in Skopje on March 4. Right-wing and diaspora organizations protested against a possible compromise with Greece on the country's name which they say would damage the national interest. (Robert Atanasovski/AFP/Getty Images) 

BY YIANNIS BABOULIAS

 | MARCH 6, 2018, 7:00 AM

On Sunday, Feb. 4, the latest chapter of a 26-year dispute played out in Syntagma Square in central Athens. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks gathered in front of parliament to protest a potential deal that would conclude the dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the name of the latter country. A march in Thessaloniki two weeks prior also brought to the streets hundreds of thousands. Another is to follow in Patras soon. And these protests seem to be only the beginning of a wave that will peak this summer, when Greece and FYROM expect to conclude negotiations.

Since 1992, when Yugoslavia fell apart, Greece has objected to the use of the name “Macedonia” by its neighboring country. Despite the fact it has since been recognized by most other countries as the Republic of Macedonia, Greece’s reluctance to come to an agreement over the issue has stopped it from joining NATO and working toward joining the European Union.
In theory, a deal should be easy

In theory, a deal should be easy

: Greece and FYROM have already discussed proposals granting recognition to the latter for the name New Macedonia or Northern Macedonia. But the tightly packed crowds at Syntagma Square last month showed many Greeks will protest any name that includes the word “Macedonia” in any form — that is to say, they’ll protest any diplomatic solution at all. Under the shadow of a 140-square-meter flag hanging from a crane, the communal chant rang out: “Macedonia is Greek.”

History and conspiracy

The issue is clearly emotional, but the root of the problem is both historical and political. Since 1992, nationalist narratives have taken hold in both countries around the issue. In FYROM, especially under former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the government tried to establish a direct link between modern inhabitants of Slavic Macedonia and Alexander the Great, a link which doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Greeks on the other hand, see a plan by dark forces to take over the Greek province of Macedonia, perhaps an echo from a post-World War II plan by Josip Broz Tito and Greek communists to establish a republic that included FYROM and northern Greece as part of Yugoslavia.

But in practical terms, both narratives are false. While the administrative region Macedonia extended into FYROM and Bulgaria under the Romans and the Byzantines, no link can be established between the ancient Macedonians and the Slavic populations that arrived almost a thousand years later in the area. But equally, for all the following centuries, these peoples were indeed called Macedonian alongside Greek and Bulgarian populations. Furthermore, it would be impossible for FYROM to enforce any claim to Greek territory, as its economic power and armed forces are minuscule compared to its southern neighbor. However, among the demonstrators on Sunday, it was commonplace to believe the rumor that FYROM’s constitution includes such claims Greek territory — even as there’s an explicit mention in that document that FYROM doesn’t have any border disputes or claims toward its neighbors.

Still, the narrative persists. “They are communists I’m telling you, they’ll sell off everything,” I overheard in a conversation next to me at the Syntagma protest. Prior to the demonstration, politicians of all shades had done much to fan conspiracy theories. Sofia Voultepsi, an MP with New Democracy, the opposition party in the Hellenic Parliament, said in an interview that “Tsipras has made a deal to sell off Macedonia in exchange for a debt haircut.” The same MP, who had served as a parliamentary spokeswoman in the past, had once accused the BBC of being ran by arms dealers.

An upended political landscape

But it’s a left-wing politician who has become the symbol of resistance to compromise: legendary composer Mikis Theodorakis, now 92 years old, who is widely known for his struggle against the Greek 1967 junta. Theodorakis, whose house was attacked with paint by anarchists the previous night over the Macedonia issue, said in a speech during the rally: “Yes, I’m a patriot, internationalist; I disdain fascism in all its forms, especially in its most deceitful and dangerous one, the left-wing one.”

It is a major departure for a man whose name has been connected intimately with left-wing culture in the country. But it’s also symbolic of how the issue has upended many certainties in Greece. For the ruling leftist Syriza party, it creates a headache on the domestic front while they are under pressure by the United States to conclude a deal. Their coalition partners, the hard-right Independent Greeks party, although unwilling to collapse the government over the issue, are more sympathetic to the protesters.

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Opposition parties were quick to try and capitalize on these tensions. But for them, too, the issue poses problems: The center-right leader of the conservative New Democracy party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was too slow to take a position on the issue, and when he did it was simply “we shouldn’t come to a deal now, let’s leave it for some other time in the future.” This allowed the powerful far-right faction of the party, headed by deputy leader Adonis Georgiadis, to seize the spotlight and push for a “no deal that includes the name Macedonia” position, which was quickly adopted by protesters. ND also fears that splits in the party over the issue could result in the creation of a new party further to the right and modeled after Italy’s populist, anti-immigrant Northern League.

The international implications

However much the Greek political landscape might be impacted by the ongoing negotiations, it’s developments in its northern neighbor that should be perhaps of more concern. Thanos Dokos, director of ELIAMEP, Greece’s most prominent foreign-policy think tank, told FP, “There is concern about stability in the western Balkans, which as far as the U.S. are concerned, centers around Russia’s efforts to gain footholds in the region.”

Costas Douzinas, a Syriza MP who heads parliament’s committee on foreign affairs and is a law professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, agrees: “The Western Balkans find themselves in a trajectory of the formation of new nationalisms and unstable governments. The first priority is to avoid the breakdown of this geopolitical region, to not return to the ’90s.”

FYROM has faced an onslaught of challenges to its political stability in the past decade. Gruevski’s government, mired in scandals, made a desperate grasp for power by attempting to politicize the judiciary and cracking down hard against protesters who demanded more democracy and transparency. Meanwhile, tensions between the country’s Slavic and Albanian populations have shown worrying signs, as evidenced by the violent clashes in the northern region of Koumanovo between an armed ethnic Albanian faction calling themselves the National Liberation Army and the national police in 2015. Gruevski, in his growing desperation following the wave of protests, and sensing he had lost the United States’ backing, turned to Russia for diplomatic support, sounding the alarm for both NATO and the EU.

The solution promoted by the EU and the United States, is for Macedonia, alongside Serbia, to be inducted into NATO and the EU. “The EU realized it had neglected the Balkans, which has resulted in pretty ugly situations in economic, political, and security terms in the region,” says Dokos, the think tank director. “We’re seeing them now opening up again the possibility of expansion, mostly with Serbia and Montenegro, but other countries, too, to signal they if they’re willing to try, the door is open in the immediate future.”

The prospect has significant implications for FYROM, but only if it can sort out its relationship with Greece. Athena Skoulariki, a lecturer in the University of Crete who specializes on the Macedonian issue, stressed that tensions with Athens “has created a lot of problems with the country’s accession program.”

But a window of opportunity has opened for Greece now that Gruevski, the main culprit behind the promotion of the nationalist rhetoric around FYROM’s supposed origins, has lost power amid a swelter of corruption probes against his government. Along with a new prime minister, a new atmosphere — one more conducive to compromise on the naming issue — has emerged in FYROM.

Domestic political football

Whether Greek politicians will be able to take advantage of it however, is another issue entirely. In exchange for Greece’s recognition of the name New Macedonia or Northern Macedonia, FYROM has agreed in principle to cease publicizing any official links to Alexander the Great and ancient Macedonia, The country has already renamed an airport and highway as a gesture of good will. But this hasn’t placated feelings among Greeks. And it’s difficult to spare any of Greece’s political factions from blame. 

“The handling of the situation by the Greek government on a strategic level was positive, because they realized there was a window of opportunity to close this issue once and for all,” Thanos Dokos said. He blames the government, however, for avoiding any compromise with opposition parties, by springing the issue on them without consulting them first. “On a tactical level, reaching some understanding with other political parties and preparing public opinion, there I’m afraid they didn’t handle it well. They saw it as an opportunity to impale the opposition.”

From the government’s perspective however, it is the opposition New Democracy that is being opportunistic. Douzinas, writing for the left-wing online daily EfSyn, put it thus: “New Democracy is not simply registering its different perspective on the issue but is actively trying to undermine trust [in the government] and create an atmosphere of terror, which would make citizens entrench themselves in their barricaded home and their ‘surrounded’ and ‘under threat’ country. Their aim is not the salvation of the ‘nation’s soul,’ but the creation of insecurity that will turn citizens against the government.”

“Greece, as a country, has double the GDP than all the western Balkan countries put together.” he tells Foreign Policy. “It’s in Greece’s best interest to stabilize the region. Because Greek businesses are involved in the process, normalization will be an economic boost for Greece, too. We can be in a mutually growing with our northern neighbors, and their path toward the EU is evidence of that.”
Dokos agrees that a failure to come to a deal would be a very bad outcome for both countries: “[If there’s no agreement] the current name might become permanent, a country that could be partner might be estranged and find itself open for others to play games in the Balkans, which Greece doesn’t want us the Balkans are its natural hinterland.”

The stakes are high. “I’m less optimistic than I was two weeks ago,” Dokos says. “I’m not saying I’d rule it out, but I don’t think the odds are with coming to a solution at this point”. It’s indeed hard to see the room for compromise right now. But Greece, the EU, and NATO have too much riding on the outcome to let the present opportunity go to waste, however strong the emotions of everyday Greeks.